Thursday, March 17, 2016

A third generation of stealth frigate delivered to the French Navy – The Point

The Navy took delivery of Toulon on Wednesday its third FREMM frigate, furtive and equipped with the new naval cruise missile (MdCN) produced by DCNS which aims to achieve 50% of its turnover from exports in the coming years.

“the goal of DCNS, which realized 10% internationally there fifteen years, is from 30% today to 50% of sales export, “he told AFP on Wednesday a spokesman of the french industrial group.

the Languedoc, which will be based in Toulon, is the fifth multi-mission frigate (FREMM) produced by DCNS , the first of which, Aquitaine, based in Brest with Provence, was delivered in November 2012. Two other units were sold to? Egypt and Morocco.

at the ceremony on Languedoc, the general armaments engineer Laurent Sellier was very satisfied with the operational qualities of the FREMM Aquitaine and Provence who participated earlier this year in shares of the international Task Force 50 in the Gulf.

the ship, fully compatible with the systems used by NATO, then demonstrated its “interoperability”, during joint operations especially with the navy of the United States, he said.

According to Hervé Boy, that was frigate captain before joining DCNS, these vessels have the advantage of being “extremely stealthy” by having “comparable to the acoustic signature of a trawler.”

in addition, he noted the power of? armament that includes 16 naval cruise missiles, “french equivalent of the US Tomahawk” and Aster missiles, Exocet, and MU90 torpedoes.

This ship, said multi-mission, however, is especially developed for the anti spearfishing with several sonars, including equipment that can be deployed from the helicopter Cayman marine (NH90) board.

Pride for DCNS, the twin engine with a gas turbine propulsion that allows the frigate to reach 27 knots and a hybrid powertrain providing “broad discretion in stealth mode at a speed of 16 knots”, detailed Hervé Boy.

compared to the previous generation of frigates ASW (anti-submarine) French, which required a crew of about 250 men, it takes only 108 sailors for FREMM, counting the crew? s helicopter.

As part of the FREMM program, DCNS has delivered a total of 10 vessels including eight in the Navy, while a transalpine consortium must deliver ten counterparts boats commissioned by the Italy.

Initially, France was planning to acquire 17 vessels of this type for a budget of € 6.5 billion, but the Defence reduced its order to 11, then 8 finally ships , exploding the unit cost of each frigate